Cover: In the May issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker is our bumper PACKWINE feature, where we explore suppliers’ ever-ingenious solutions to the industry’s packaging problems and Nepenthe shows off its new removable capsules (as seen on the cover). Kym Anderson and Glyn Wittwer provide insight on the tariffs and tensions across global trade, and Dr Martin Cole addresses the future of funding for the AWRI. Paul Baggio catches us up on the new normal in filtration, whilst Ian Jeffery digs deep into De Bortoli’s sustainability success.
REGULARS
6 What’s online
6 In this issue
12 International briefs
89 Producer Profile: Dr Brian Freeman
92 Looking Back
92 Calendar
93 Marketplace classifieds
NEWS
7 Adelaide Hills alternative wine wins Best Wine from Australia award
8 The International Cool Climate Wine Show launches award for excellence in environmental sustainability
9 South Australian wines pop up in Canada’s liquor stores
10 ASVO launches new scholarship program offering increased flexibility
14 ANALYSIS Australian wine industry urged to ‘fight for the future’ of ‘critical’ AWRI
17 Global wine consumption at its lowest in over sixty years
GRAPEGROWING
18 Monitoring grapevine fungicide resistance in Australia
28 Blending science with heritage
32 Beechworth vigneron grows grape varieties in Australia for the first time
33 Drought relief to help SA farmers through one of the driest years on record
34 From precision irrigation to conservation irrigation
38 Ocloc and C.A. Henschke’s Mount Edelstone collaboration
WINEMAKING
42 FEATURE A ‘legacy for future generations’
45 FEATURE No longer niche: why membrane filtration is an essential part of modern winemaking
49 Beneath the flor: Australian producers find inspiration from Jura winemaking styles
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
53 Cooperage announces global strategic support measures amid evolving tariffs
54 Would ANZ vignerons benefit from a US-led tariff war?
SPECIAL FEATURE:
61 PACKWINE 2025
62 Improving bottling profitability and productivity via advanced tech involves more than just the tech
68 Fully automated bottling line capable of 2,500 bottles per hour to ‘modernise’ Australian winemaking
70 Qld winery anticipates $22,000 refund from glass bottle recycling
71 Supermarket own-label aluminium wine bottle launched in UK
72 Benefits galore amidst uptake of lightweight bottles
74 Spanish lab applies blockchain technology to improve wine traceability
76 Nepenthe gets naked with new bottle closures
80 New Zealand’s only glass manufacturer reaches 70% recycled target
SALES & MARKETING
84 Strength in unity: the importance of presenting a united front
Adelaide Hills alternative wine wins Best Wine from Australia award
A Grüner Veltliner wine from the Adelaide Hills has taken home the trophy for ‘Best Wine from Australia’ at the Frankfurt International Wine Trophy 2025 competition in Germany.
The Hahndorf Hill Reserve Grüner Veltliner 2023, which was grown and produced in the Adelaide Hills, was judged to be the best wine of all Australian entries in the ISO 9001 certified competition, which judges over 2,300 wines annually from over 30 countries and 100 different wine regions.
In addition, the Hahndorf Hill Reserve Grüner Veltliner was the highest-rated wine in the entire Grüner Veltliner category of the show, outperforming top
Grüner Veltliner wines from acclaimed wineries in Austria and Germany.
“This is such an exciting moment,” said Hahndorf Hill co-owner Larry Jacobs.
“The Adelaide Hills has become the epicentre for this delicious grape variety in Australia, so it’s wonderful to have an Adelaide Hills Grüner shining so well on the international stage.”
In 2010, Hahndorf Hill became the first producer of Grüner Veltliner wine in South Australia and since then it has diversified into four different styles of the versatile white grape variety.
“Grüner is such a beautifully complex variety and is especially versatile at the table, where it has the ability to readily
pair with virtually all foods,” said Jacobs. “You can match Grüner with everything from white meat and all sea foods to all spicy Southeast Asian dishes. It’s also especially magical with any vegetarian dish, and even your favourite rare beef treat such as beef carpaccio or just rare grilled sirloin steak.”
This is not the first time that Hahndorf Hill’s Grüner Veltliner wines have triumphed globally. A Hahndorf Hill Grüner was the highest-rated Grüner Veltliner at the 2020 Decanter World Wine awards in London and Hahndorf Hill has twice been rated by Austrian wine magazines as producing the best Grüner Veltliner wines in the world outside of Austria.
Hahndorf Hill co-owners Larry Jacobs (right) and Marc Dobson specialise in producing Austrian-variety wines. Photo: Cheryl Smith
Blending science with heritage
New cultivars to “future-proof” Australian wines
New mildew-resistant and drought-resilient grapevines have been planted in South Australia’s Coonawarra wine region to help safeguard the future of Australia’s wine industry against a changing climate and disease threats.
Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and Treasury Wine
Estates (TWE) partnered to “future-proof” some of the most collected wines in the region made from old vines, with the first vines of the new progeny recently planted at Wynns Coonawarra Estate.
The new grapevines blend genetics from TWE’s heritage vines in Coonawarra and Barossa Valley, which have an enhanced climate resilience, with mildew-resistant traits developed through years of selective breeding by CSIRO, with funding from Wine Australia.
Powdery and downy mildew costs the Australian wine sector an estimated
Rootstocks
Wynns senior winemaker Sue Hodder. Image courtesy Treasury Wine Estates
Seedlings in the lab at CSIRO Waite campus in Adelaide
No longer niche: why membrane filtration is an essential part of modern winemaking
It was 25 years ago when Paul Baggio first introduced ceramic cross-flow membrane technology to Australia. The initial machines installed at Australian Vintage Limited (AVL) and Yalumba in 2001 were procured for processing and filtering wines and juices. At the time, this was considered groundbreaking technology—something that would go on to revolutionise wine filtration and solids/lees recovery.
Fast forward to 2025, and we now stand at the frontier of a new generation of membrane technologies. These technologies are being rapidly adopted for wine and juice separation, clarification, stabilisation, and quality enhancement—while also significantly reducing the cost of vinification. Speaking to Grapegrower & Winemaker, managing director at FB Propak Paul Baggio explains the latest developments in filtration technologies.
QWhat are the latest technological advancements related to winery membrane technologies?
ARecent advancements in membrane technology have delivered an unprecedented range of purposedesigned membrane types—varying by pore size, material composition, and even electrical charge. These innovations enable far more targeted separation of wine filtrates and permeates, allowing for highly selective processing of winery juices, gases, and compounds at the molecular level.
Today, specific membranes can target molecules based on molecular weight cutoffs, enabling separation or adjustment of compounds like oxygen (O₂), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and hydrogen sulphide (H₂S). Some membranes can even facilitate alcohol removal from wine
streams via osmosis—at around 50 kDa (kilodaltons, a measure of molecular weight)—presenting powerful new process efficiencies.
Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes are now available in precise molecular ranges, making it possible, for instance, to strip polymerised anthocyanins from red wines in a single pass, resulting in a clear, ethanol-rich liquid. Similarly, browned grape juice extracts—laden with oxidised catechins and polyphenols— can be clarified without the need for carbon treatment. This opens the door for wineries to reclaim and re-blend heavy press fractions more sustainably.
Perhaps the most exciting frontier is electro-membrane technology, which allows for stabilisation of potassium and calcium levels without cold stabilisation
Paul Baggio, managing director at FB Propak
PACKWINE returns in 2025 with stories of suppliers’ ever-ingenious solutions to the wine industry’s packaging problems. Losing weight in the glass department, stripping off capsules and recycling everything they can, producers have been hard at work adapting to the changing consumer checklist and adopting new strategies and technologies wherever they can. Exploring everything from brand-new bottling lines to cellar door container collection, this edition of PACKWINE reflects the fresh thinking and motivation succeeding in the sector. Bringing years of experience in its coverage, PACKWINE remains the only major packaging review for the benefit of wine producers across Australia and New Zealand.
